How to Get Rid of Muffin Top

You know muffin top, that fluffy bit of tummy that hangs over the top of your waistband. The first time someone asked me how to get rid of it, I was a little to quick on the draw with my response. This was before I worked in the fitness industry. I was going for humor, so I said, "Buy bigger pants." She gave me an evil glare.

These days, I realize that such a question is a great teaching opportunity, and there really is a multi-part response. But first, if you need to get rid of your muffin-top tomorrow, the easiest answer really is in the clothing. It doesn't matter how little body fat one has, if the elastic around the middle is too tight, it's going to create a bulge somewhere. So it really wouldn't hurt to buy some leggings with a more forgiving waist.

That response won't do anything for your

Vintage Slimming Belt

hip-waist ratio, or body-fat percentage, so let's tackle that. First off, hopefully we've all gotten the word that spot reduction doesn't really work. So core exercises like crunches and planks are great for building core strength and stability, but they cannot, all by themselves, get rid of your muffin top.

I am afraid, my friends, that what is required is a solid plan of cardiovascular exercise and solid meal planning. The great part about this is that there is no one right answer as to what specific kind of cardio you have to do. I myself experienced great weight loss results after my first daughter was born from just walking and pushing her in the stroller. As my fitness level improved, and as she was able to take longer naps, I started doing exercise videos at home. Later, when she was able to go to kids' care at the gym, I started running on the treadmill, and that was the beginning of my foray into the fitness world.

If walking, workout videos or running aren't for you, maybe you might like dancing, basketball, soccer, swimming, or any other of a million types of human movement. There's no wrong answer. Just find something that causes you to break a sweat, and that you can tolerate well enough to do fairly consistently for 30-60 minutes most days of the week.

Next up is the food aspect. People have written whole books about food and diet plans. Who am I, but a simple personal trainer and a mother of three who has successfully lost and kept from regaining a decent chunk of weight. I find that the simpler I keep my guidelines, the more likely I am to follow them. Here are a few simple food ideas. (Serious idea props go out to my fitspiration, Jonathan Ross, who wrote the book, "Abs Revealed." you should check it out.)

• Whenever you eat, eat a vegetable. Or at least a fruit. For example, sauté some spinach and onions along with your egg in the morning. Slice a banana into your oatmeal. As pictured below, chop up some spinach, tomatoes and strawberries along with a boiled egg for a simple lunch salad.
• Avoid added refined sweeteners. Let's not make this complicated. I mean things that involved, at some point in the assembly process, adding scoops or cups of sweetness. We could spend a lot of time debating the relative virtues of white sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, Truvia, Splenda, and a thousand other kinds of sweeteners. Let's not. As a general rule, try to get your sweet fix from things that are naturally sweet without human help, like berries, bananas, and oranges. You get the picture. If you, like many of the people in my extended family, like to put spoonfuls of sugar on your breakfast cereal, it's going to take some time to retrain your taste buds. Be patient.

Every time you eat, eat the vegetables.

• Don't eat anything that came out of a deep fat fryer.
• Don't drink calories. Stick with water, unsweet tea, black coffee (with maybe a little milk). Avoid sodas. Even the diet sodas. I hate to bring this up, but beer, wine and liquor also include the emptiest of all calories, alcohol. The relaxation value of a nightly glass of Malbec may be worth it to you you, but 3-4 glasses is probably not helping anything, health-wise.
• Make your own food when possible. It's not always feasible, but it saves both calories and money.

Realize the bullets above are goals, and you won't always meet them. Understand that there will be days when you'll drink all the beer and eat all the cheesecake. Don't let that one day ruin your overall plan. The next morning, put on your stretchy pants, forgive yourself, and get right back on track.

And also, if you'd like more a more detailed and specific workout plan made just for you, contact a personal trainer. Like me. I work with people both in-person and online.

Now go have an awesome day and crush those goals!

CSA vegetable survival tips

Whenever I talk about my CSA on social media, someone invariably asks me about the Confederate States of America. Although I do love history, in this case, I'm talking about Community Supported Agriculture, in which consumers (me) buy a share in the season's harvest. We usually pay up front in the late winter or early spring, so that the farmers have the "seed money" to get rolling. Then, we go and pick up our harvest share once a week. In our case, since we value organic produce, we selected an all-organic CSA that also had a convenient pick-up day, time and location, The Fredericksburg Area CSA Project.

The reason I personally love a CSA is that I get really fresh, locally grown food. I am supporting agriculture in my own community. I also chose this specific CSA because all the suppliers are organic farms, and that's important to me. The fact that most of the food I buy at the grocery store travels from California, Oregon, Mexico and Chile is very frustrating to me, when there is perfectly good farmland right here in Virginia. Every mile my produce travels takes a toll on its nutritional value and on the environment. Yes, I will still buy bananas from Ecuador and avocados from California, because I love them, and they just don't grow in this climate, but I would like the bulk of my food to be as local as possible.

I have done a CSA before, but it has been several years. I haven't had one since I moved to the Fredericksburg area. In my previous experience, I learned some valuable CSA survival skills.

1. Make time to get to the pickup each week. It sounds obvious, but this is your one day to get your veggies. The pick up day and time should be a generally good day and time for you. The one I have now works well. For my previous CSA, I had to travel 30 miles in rush hour traffic after the end of a long work day. There were many days I just couldn't make it. That resulted in a waste of money and a less positive experience for me.
2. Make a serious effort to include vegetables every time you eat. This doesn't mean you need to become a vegetarian, but find some way to squeeze veggies into every meal and snack. At breakfast, it's pretty simple to put kale (or any greens) into your morning smoothie along with carrots and beets. I have given these veggie smoothies to my kids and even my reluctant husband, and as long as all the bits are well pureed, everyone was fine with that. If you don't do smoothies, throw some spinach (or any other greens) into your eggs. The addition of sautéed onion and feta cheese makes a delicious omelette. Make a salad with lunch and dinner. 
3. Use the internet to find recipes for the mysterious vegetables you've never seen before. The first time I got mustard greens, I was stumped. But I found over time that you can stir-fry just about anything with a bit of soy sauce and garlic and it tastes awesome. You can toss most vegetables (especially beets, sweet potato, carrot, asparagus, broccoli, kohlrabi) in olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes and they come out caramelized and delicious. But just spending a few minutes looking up collard green recipes can open your eyes to new possibilities you may not have considered--like an Asian rice and raw collard salad with sesame oil, soy sauce and hot peppers.
4. Understand that seasons vary. When you buy produce at the grocery store, the selection is pretty much the same in July as it is in December. With a CSA (depending on where you live) the variety changes with the season. Early spring will feature lots of leafy greens. In Virginia, we don't see tomatoes until July. Be patient, and instead of longing for the vegetables you can't have, love the ones you're with. Of course, you can always supplement your CSA supply with other veggies, but if you have a large share, you might already have a struggle consuming what you have before the vegetables wilt.
5. Store carefully. Once you pick up your veggies, take care to store them properly. Greens wilt quickly, but it helps if you bring lettuce home  (or kale, collards, herbs, etc.) and wrap them in a couple of damp paper towels, then put them back in a plastic grocery bag, and nestle them into the refrigerator. Don't feel like you have to jam everything into the vegetable crisper. Not only are you more likely to see and select the vegetables if they are out on the shelves, the extra humidity in the main compartment of the refrigerator that results from opening and closing the door actually helps keep the greens fresh longer. Here's a link to a handy article from the Washington Post about storing veggies: http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/one-way-to-fight-food-waste-revive-wilted-produce/2013/09/16/b1342b20-1b1a-11e3-a628-7e6dde8f889d_story.html
6. Share the wealth. If you feel overwhelmed by your vegetable share, give some of your abundance to others. Neighbors, friends, parents, grown-up kids, maybe even a homeless shelter might be able to use what you can't handle. It's all better than throwing away the produce you pre-paid for.
7. Plan for absences. If you have to be out of town or miss a share day, arrange to have someone else pick up your stuff. That way, it doesn't go to waste, and your friend can either enjoy the free food (if you are out of town) or can hold it for you until you can pick it up.
8. Keep an open mind. Over the course of the season, it is pretty much a sure thing you will receive vegetables that you never would have picked on your own. My husband, for example, dislikes both kale and collard greens, which of course are an early-season staple. If you get things you think you don't like, make a serious effort to find new ways to prepare them. Maybe you just don't like spinach when it's cooked, but it's okay in a salad. Perhaps you can roast that vegetable with olive oil and salt and you find a new appreciation for it. 

Sweet Potato Fries

A lot of excellent Lindy-friendly songs talk about food. Maybe this is why I like jazz so much—because I love food as much as I love to dance. The songs get stuck in my head, and then I have to go home and make the food. This week’s food song is “Sweet Potato Fries,” By Gordon Webster, off of their Live in Rochester CD.

Sweet Potato Fries
with Montreal Steak seasoning
and ketchup

We saw Gordon Webster perform at the International Lindy HopChampionships last year, and bought three of his CDs. I love almost every song on these CDs. There is so much excellent instrumentation, and they all just seem to beg for improv while dancing.

I have included the “Sweet Potato Fries” lyrics below, and you can give the band a listen here. After listening to this song, you may want to make your own sweet potato fries, which is an excellent idea, because they are very healthy if you make them yourself. Not so much if you buy them in a restaurant, deep fried and smothered in fat, and not as tasty if you buy the big frozen bag at the store.

Tips for making sweet potato fries:

Use one sweet potato per person. Scrub and peel the outside of the potato. Cut the potato in fry-sized strips. (Sweet potatoes are very hard, so use a large, heavy, sharp knife) Place the cut potatoes in a mixing bowl and drizzle olive oil or melted coconut oil over them. Add one of the following seasoning combinations (or improvise your own):

• Salt and pepper
• McCormick’s Montreal steak seasoning
• Crushed rosemary, salt & pepper
• Crushed mint and salt
• Cinnamon and pepper

Stir to combine. Pour the seasoned spuds in a shallow baking pan (like a jelly roll pan) and arrange so they are in  one flat layer. Bake in a 400-degree oven for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the taters are brown and crispy.

Serve hot, with ketchup.

Sweet Potato Fries

By Gordon Webster

Live in Rochester

When men come and dine, they get to feelin’ full just fine

The dining’s in the timing with my sweet potato fries

When men try my spuds, they claim the other gals are duds

Does wonders for the hunger, o my sweet potato fries

When they come and meet, looking for a treat, they get taters

You can take a seat, then you’re bound to eat

A dish that’s just delish if it’s for now or for later

Take your appetite, down to the table, grab a bite

You’ll never have no better than my sweet potato fries

Well, I ain’t got much to show, but I can peel ‘em fast or slow

My sweetie loves to eatie all my sweet potato fries

Don’t got time, don’t got money, but I got a dish to try

Cause I’m a yammy mammy with my sweet potato fries

I can hardly wait, looking for a date with my honey

He knows where to look, when he needs a cook

I’ll fix him up a dish and never charge him no money

Dinner is served tonight, come get your fill and feel just right

You’ll never have no better than my sweet potato fries

Get the salt, pepper too

That’s all the flavor that I’ll add for you

You’ll never have no better than my sweet potato fries

Spaghetti sans pasta

Every time I go to the grocery store, I see more and more gluten-free pasta products. I am glad there is an increasing variety of gluten-free food, but it's also expensive and high-carbohydrate.

Spicy tomato sauce oer a baked sweet potato

One of the great health benefits of going wheat-free is that you have the opportunity to fill the void left in your diet with more vegetables.

I used to love making spaghetti. I went through a few months after I quit wheat, where I did not make it at all, because I didn't want to spring for the gluten-free spaghetti noodles. Eventually, I got creative and started putting delicious tomato sauce on top of any vegetable that would stand still for a few minutes. Here are some of my new favorite bases for spaghetti sauce:

• Slice zucchini and sautee in olive oil, butter or coconut oil until tender. Season with salt and pepper. Top with sauce.
• Prick a sweet potato all over with a fork, wrap in foil, bake at 400F for one hour (or microwave). Cut open and fill with sauce. (This is particularly good with a spicy tomato sauce--or chili)
• Bake a white potato. Fill with sauce.
• Make mashed potatoes, top with sauce.
• Cut an acorn or butternut squash in half and scrape out seeds. Place cut-side down in a baking dish. Add just enough water to fill the bottom of the pan. Bake at 350F for 1 hour. Top with sauce.
• Using the same cooking method, bake a spaghetti squash. When cooked, scrape out the stringy pulp and place in a colander to drain for about 5 minutes, pressing down on the pulp with a rubber scraper from time to time, before plating and topping with sauce.

Gluten-free on the go

In case you’ve been asleep for the past year, or you have a highly paid assistant named Hobbes who does your grocery shopping for you, you have probably noticed that “Gluten Free” is a big buzzword in food right now.

Gluten is a type of protein usually found in wheat, but it’s also in barley, spelt, rye and some oat products. Many people have a hard time tolerating wheat and gluten. Some folks have an allergy to it; others have a condition called Celiac disease, which can cause very serious health effects.

In my personal opinion (not supported by any scientific evidence whatsoever), I think the popularity of the gluten-free fad has been spreading because someone who is affected by the protein goes gluten free, experiences awesome results, and then blabs about it all over Facebook, prompting other people to try the diet change. In some cases, these other folks also experience awesome results, and they go blabbing, too.

In my case, omitting wheat and gluten from my diet led to a much happier digestive system. The chronic aches and pains in my hands and hip that I thought were the beginning of rheumatoid arthritis are now gone. My cycles went from totally whacked to pretty much normal for a 41-year-old woman. I sleep better. I lost a little weight (only about 10 lbs, but I was not overweight). My respiratory allergies are almost gone. My nails are stronger, my hair grows faster. I have a lot more energy, and I don’t get sick as often.

I am not trying to convert you to gluten-free living: some people are gluten sensitive, and others are not. If you do live gluten-free, however, I wanted so share some of my experience about traveling and eating with this restriction.

Airplanes.

Airplanes are probably the worst place for a gluen-free person to be trapped for an entire day. The top tip I can give you is to pack a cooler on the plane. You’ll be going through TSA screening, so take a small, soft-sided, lunch-sized cooler. If you use the gel freezer packs, TSA may confiscate them. You can pack a baggie of ice cubes in the cooler, and then throw it out in the security line. I normally pack my lunch bag the night before, put the whole thing in the fridge, and take it all out in the morning. It usually stays cool all day without ice or gel packs.

I usually pack my travel cooler with dried fruit, nuts, celery and carrot sticks, gluten-free pretzels, a fresh apple, orange, banana, and mini baby-bell cheeses. Sometimes I might throw in some beef jerky, but that stuff does tend to be a little stinky. You can even freeze and take the yogurt tubes marketed toward little-kid lunchboxes. I don’t buy the yogurt tubes very often because they are full of sugar and food dyes, but this is a special occasion.  For travel, I also pack the tiny cups of individually packed peanut butter like (Jif “To-Go”). These too are a little more sugar/corn-syrupy and hydrogenated than I would normally like, but we’re trying to get through a full day of unpredictable food supply here.

If you can find single-serving-sized hummus packs, those are nice, too. TSA won’t let you take a full-sized tub of hummus on the plane.

You know how hard it is to find any edible food on an airplane--it is too much to expect them to have gluten-free food. If you ask about gluten-free options (even in First Class) be prepared for the flight attendant to look at you like you are that creepy little monster John Lithgow saw sitting on the airplane wing in the old “Twilight Zone” movie.

Hotel snacks.

My husband and I always stow a stash of hotel snacks in our checked bags. We have really big bags, by the way. I like to take protein bars (I particularly like Kind bars and Nature Valley Protein bars—make sure you read the ingredient list) and more representatives of the gluten free snacks packed for the plane. I don’t pack fresh fruit or veggies in the checked bags, because they tend to rot pretty fast in transit and no one wants bananas getting all mashed up into their pajamas.

Whatever you do, do not pack Glutino’s fudge-coated gluten-free pretzels. Those things kick the butt of all other gluten-free foods, and I can almost guarantee you will binge-eat an entire five-serving bag in five minutes, especially if you have been surviving on dried apples and old cheese for three days.

Restaurants.

If you have tried to live more than a week seriously gluten-free, then you know what a pain and gluten derailer restaurant eating can be. At home, I try to minimize eating out as much as possible, but it does get boring eating camp food three meals a day for days on end while on the road.  Although it’s splendid if you are able to get a hotel with kitchenette or even a microwave, that doesn’t always work out. Even if it does, you are likely to eventually crave human company strongly enough that you will leave your hotel cave and search for nourishment and comraderie in a restaurant.

Many large chain restaurants have official gluten-free menus. I don’t always trust them, because when I was in high school, I went out with a couple of restaurant cooks, and this is who I imagine is making my food. I also visualize this person spilling flour all across the top of my gluten-free entrée. 

Some of the gluten-free menus are intensely boring. Apparently at the Olive Garden, for example, gluten-free seems to them to mean “totally bland and appropriate for people offended by flavor.”

So sometimes I have to make my own suggestions and improvements, and I always ask a lot of questions.

French fries are usually a no-go, because they are often coated in flour, and if not, they are almost always fried in a deep fryer with other wheaty things, which contaminates them.

In general, no bread (unless, like Legal Sea Foods, they actually have gluten-free rolls on request) no soups and no Cajun food (unless the meal is specifically prepared for gluten sensitivity, Cajun food normally starts with a roux—a mix of flour and butter). No gravy.  No creamy sauces. No chinese food unless, like PF Chang’s, the restaurant has a gluten-free menu and gluten-free soy sauce. No desserts, unless they happen to have a chocolate mousse or ice cream.

So, what can you eat at a restaurant? Salads are usually safe, but not only do I have to specify “no croutons,” I have to ask if there ever were croutons on the salad (yes, some servers would just pick the croutons off instead of making a whole new salad).  Chances are you are hungry, so you probably want some kind of protein on this salad—make sure it’s not breaded, deep-fried, or dredged. This may completely stymie an inexperienced chef—but they can still put salt, pepper and lemon juice on it and flame-broil it. And the salad dressings, too, can be a gluten hideaway. Ask, and if the server doesn’t know, just use a squeeze of lemon.

Many times, steaks are gluten-free. This is very exciting for me, because I don’t get to eat a lot of beef.  For a more casual meal when I feel like pretending I’m a junk-food eater, I get a hamburger with no bun and a side salad (no croutons, no dressing. Squeeze of lemon. Living on the edge).

I always ask, but barbeque is often gluten-friendly. Naked BBQ—I’m talking about the smoked meat alone, is a pretty safe bet, but you have to ask about any sauce that might be added.

You may now see why I lost 10 lbs since going gluten-free. I am just thankful I can still have wine and pure chocolate. Going gluten-free is certainly not for everyone. It is kind of a pain in the butt. However, the dietary change has so drastically improved my day-to-day life that keeping it up is well worth the trouble.